BUSH’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS played well in Iran, according to Pejman Yousefzadeh.
Archive for 2005
January 24, 2005
WHY IS TIM BLAIR’S SITE DOWN? I emailed him and he responds:
Readership has overwhelmed the server, so Hostmatters is shifting us to a new one.
Don’t know when this will happen; soon, hopefully.
I blame Instapundit!
It’s a fair cop.
UPDATE: Alternative theory: Eaten by dingoes. Well, she should know.
MORE: Andrea Harris emails that it was actually a flood of comment-spammers that shut it down. Those guys suck.
I’M GOING TO BE ON HUGH HEWITT’S SHOW shortly. You can listen live here.
BILL HOBBS: “Will Bredesen Turn TennCare Lemon Into Political Lemonade?”
HIGH PRAISE: “The campaign for clean elections led by Sound Politics is gaining steam.” Don’t miss the photo.
LT SMASH: “Zarqawi is Doomed.” More here.
A BBC FLIP-FLOP ON WMD? Why would that surprise me?
JOURNALIST OR ACTIVIST? I think the difference between Kos and some other people with press cards is mostly that he admits he’s taking a side.
UPDATE: Reader Dave Gudeman thinks I’m wrong here:
Kos doesn’t just admit that he’s partisan, he is also a professional organizer, fundraiser, and promoter for the Democratic party. That ought to disqualify him from carrying a press pass at any function that relates directly to the party. This is like having a top manager for a corporation wear a press pass at the corporation’s annual shareholder’s meeting. It’s dishonest.
I suspect that Jim Geraghty disagrees, too, though he correctly notes that it’s mostly an intra-Democratic Party question in this context.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Doc Searls says we’ll see more of this sort of thing. Prof. Bainbridge is unconvinced that there’s an issue here. And Ed Batista is retreating from his earlier comparison of Kos with U2. I don’t think there’s any danger of Kos turning into Bon Jovi, though.
And Bainbridge has some tough questions for the more traditional media.
ECONOBLOGGING: This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up.
IN THE MAIL: A copy of Leonard Sax’s new book, Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences, a book that’s sure to be controversial. Though it seems that it’s okay to talk about sex differences, so long as it’s done in a way that reflects badly on men.
THE PRESS DID ITS BEST TO IGNORE the Afghan elections. I suspect that, since that’s not an option with the Iraqi vote, they’ll be doing their best to portray it as a failure somehow. I also suspect that it won’t work. One of the things that made press coverage so damaging in Vietnam was that it was the first time anyone remembered American reporters saying bad things about an American war effort. By now, hardly anyone is alive who remembers anything else.
UPDATE: More here.
The people I’ve felt most sorry for are the journalists who have to pretend they are excited by the inauguration and Bush’s second term. NPR personalities in particular. You can hear the inauthenticity and desperation in their voices. … As far as I know, none of them have yet tried to cover any Bush festivities from the sanctuary of the FDR memorial–where an All Things Considered correspondent wound up fleeing, on air, during last year’s Reagan ceremonies. But the term is young. …
Heh.
THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORTS THAT Internet advertising is booming:
Many of the same companies that were badly burned by Internet investments before are aggressively bidding for these sites not just because of the growing online ad business but because, like Dow Jones, they are worried that their current Web sites will not be able to keep up with demand.
“The existing old-line media companies, which have a big stake in where people advertise, have to recognize this medium,” said Larry S. Kramer, a founder and chief executive of MarketWatch. “Our audience means more to them now because it’s not just revenue they are going to pick up. It’s revenue they are going to lose.”
Online advertising is expected reach $9.7 billion in 2004, or about 3.7 percent of United States advertising spending, according to a recent Merrill Lynch report. Still, that number is expected to grow 19 percent this year as the nation’s largest advertisers shift budgets from print and network television to cable and the Internet, the report said.
As a result, publishers are being forced to confront a potential advertising inventory crunch. There is no physical limitation to the number of Web pages, of course, but advertisers want to be placed on the most popular pages and those which cater to their most profitable audiences. And those kind of pages are in shorter supply.
Sounds like good news for Henry Copeland, anyway!
DEVELOPMENTS IN MILITARY NANOTECHNOLOGY: Best quote: “Getting the government to change the way they kill people is difficult.”
ARTHUR CHRENKOFF OFFERS A GUIDE TO IRAQI POLITICAL PARTIES, and links to more election coverage.
JANUARY 24TH is the grimmest day of the year. Relax — there’s always February to look forward to!
CRUSHKERRY.COM is now AnkleBitingPundits.com, a reference to an ill-advised comment on the blogosphere by Steven Levy.
SHADES OF FALLEN ANGELS:
The findings from a team of American climate experts suggest that were it not for greenhouse gases produced by humans, the world would be well on the way to a frozen Armageddon.
Scientists have traditionally viewed the relative stability of the Earth’s climate since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago as being due to natural causes, but there is evidence that changes in solar radiation and greenhouse gas concentrations should have driven the Earth towards glacial conditions over the last few thousand years.
What stopped it has been the activity of humans, both ancient and modern, argue the scientists.
Heh. Whole story here.
UPDATE: I believe that this is the paper described above. Make of it what you will — except that if what you want to make is a perversely delightful thesis for a science fiction novel, well, it’s already been done. And though I think I’ve mentioned this before, you can read Fallen Angels for free at (where else) the Baen Free Library.
BREDESEN IN 2008? More thoughts over at GlennReynolds.com.
UPDATE: Bill Hobbs: “Bredesen in 2008? He has a better chance to win the White House than the Democratic primary.” Which sums up the Democrats’ institutional problems rather neatly.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The Tim Roemer story is relevant here, too.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (free link) looks at Michael Powell’s term as FCC chairman, and at the problems facing his successor. There’s also an interactive poll where you can grade his performance. No voting twice, Jeff . . . .
AS ALWAYS, IT’S AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED: In this case, for a Wired Magazine “Rave Award.”